HOW THE AMAZON QUEEN FOUGHT THE PRINCE OF EGYPT

As in her Shipwrecked Sailor (2000), Bower gives a little-known ancient tale fresh life without robbing it of its distinctive cultural milieu. Peeved to no end when his troops are thrown back by an army of women, Prince Pedikhons challenges their queen, Serpot, to single combat. A trained museum illustrator who has worked at several archeological sites, Bower draws expertly on ancient Egyptian visual conventions and styles to depict the climactic encounter and its prelude. She paints a set of mural-like scenes and adds lines of hieroglyphics with both phonetic transcriptions and English translations on every page. As if that’s not enough, she closes with detailed notes on the tale’s likely historical basis and on the various styles of ancient Egyptian writing. Not, however, that this is all about pedagogy: Having battled each other until sunset, Serpot and Pedikhons proceed to fall dizzily in love, then go off together to conquer India. A rare tale, as enjoyable for its authoritative, scholarly appurtenances as for its vivid retelling. (bibliography) (Picture book/folktale. 7-10)